Palmer having career-year, validating trade that brought him to Oakland

For whatever reason, Carson Palmer hasn’t been able to win over the Raiders fan base since his arrival here a year ago.
Strange, too, given Palmer bailed out the Raiders from a tough situation when then-starter Jason Campbell suffered a season-ending collarbone injury and how well he has played this season.
Palmer is on pace for 4,619 yards passing this season, which would eclipse his career-high by almost 500 yards. He passed for more than 4,000 yards twice in his eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals — he didn’t play his rookie season — but he hasn’t reached that mark in five seasons.
Some people feel as if then-coach Hue Jackson gave up too much to wrest Palmer from the Bengals. The deal just before the 2011 trade deadline cost the Raiders their first-round pick in this year’s draft, as well as their second-rounder in 2013.
Yet, they tend to overlook the fact that the Raiders weren’t going anywhere with Kyle Boller as the replacement for Campbell. They had to make a drastic move, and such moves come with a heavy price sometimes.
Palmer relieved Boller in the seventh game last season, a touch past halftime of a blowout loss at the Coliseum. He started the final nine games.
Therefore, Palmer has played in the equivalent of an entire season since he joined the Raiders. In those 16 games, Palmer has completed 347 of 569 passes (61 percent) for 4,485 yards, with 20 TDs and 20 interceptions.
It says here, Palmer unquestionably is the best quarterback the Raiders have had since Rich Gannon cobbled together four straight remarkable seasons from 1999-2002.
Palmer is signed through the 2016 season. He turns 33 late this season, yet he is playing as well, or better, than he did during his prime.
Coach Dennis Allen time and again makes it clear that he is firmly behind Palmer. For example, Allen praised Palmer for the way he accepted blame for the Raiders loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
“That’s the type of quarterback you want; a guy that’s going to step up and take responsibility and not look to pass the buck on anybody else,” Allen said. “Carson has played extremely well for us. He’s a stand-up guy, and that’s one of the reasons that I’m glad he’s our quarterback.”

— Wide receiver Juron Criner (hip), defensive end Matt Shaughnessy (shoulder) and safety Mike Mitchell (ankle) suffered injuries in practice today. All three were limited as a result.
Allen said he is unsure whether any of the injuries is serious enough to cause the players to miss much time.
“We’ll have to get in here with the trainers and see where we’re at,” Allen said.
Shaughnessy missed most of last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. Allen said he doesn’t know yet whether Shaughnessy injured the same shoulder.

— The Raiders released No. 1 cornerback Stanford Routt during the offseason, sending him packing with a satchel full of guaranteed money and a thanks for six seasons’ service.
Routt landed with the Chiefs, where he is paired with Brandon Flowers as the starting cornerbacks. As to how well Routt is faring, here’s coach Romeo Crennel’s take:
“Stanford has been learning our system, and he has been coming on,” Crennel said in a conference call. “He has an interception. He had a rough outing the last time. He was in position to make plays, and we didn’t make them. The opponent made them. Otherwise, he has been working well.”
The Raiders signed veterans Ron Bartell and Shawntae Spencer to help fill the void created by Routt’s departure. Bartell suffered a shoulder injury in the first game, Spencer hurt his foot in the second game. Neither has played ever since.
Routt allowed 47.4 percent of the passes thrown his way to be completed last season. This season, that figures has spiked to 58.1 percent, according to STATS Inc. Teams completed 18 of 31 passes for 328 yards and one touchdown vs. Routt the first six games. By comparison, former Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha has allowed 16 receptions in 31 passes for 318 an two touchdowns in six games for the Eagles this season.

Safety Mike Mitchell, whose locker was next to Routt’s, enjoyed giving his former teammate a bad time from afar. Mitchell said he texts with Routt often, but not this week. Asked if he thought Palmer would target Routt and try and get some penalty yards, Mitchell said, “I wish he would. I wish we would run at him every play and throw at him every play, just so he has to work. Let’s make him work. Let’s make it hard on him, let’s not make it easy on him. I feel that’s how he would want it and it’s definitely how we want it. We want to make him compete.”

Mitchell also relayed a story told by Routt after he’d been released and signed by the rival Kansas City Chiefs.

“He told me, I’m not mad, I’m getting paid by half the AFC West,” Mitchell said. “My whole thing, I just want to make him earn his money. I want to run at him every play, I want to throw at him every play. Make him earn that money.”

— The Raiders faced the Jaguars coming off a bye week. On Sunday, they face a Chiefs team that also is fresh from a bye.
The Jaguars surprised the Raiders by installing several defensive looks during the extra time to prepare. Those changes caused the Raiders fit in terms of running the ball and protecting Palmer.
Crennel said he and his coaches spent their time focusing more on ways to get more production from a team that went 1-5 before the bye.
“I wanted to work on us and kind of get through us, improve this game,” Crennel said. “So, we worked on fundamentals and the things that we need to do to try to be better in all phases of the game.”
Allen said facing teams coming off a bye presents some challenges for the Raiders in terms of playing a team that is fresh and has had an extra week to game plan for the Raiders.
“We all understand what they’re going through because we just went through the same things a couple of weeks ago,” Allen said. “So, we know that they’re going to come out ready to play, they’ll be emotionally, physically and mentally ready to play, and we’ve got to be ready to meet that challenge.”

— In a strange coincidence, Raiders running back Darren McFadden is playing against the Chiefs in the seventh game of the season. That’s the same opponent and game number in which McFadden suffered a Lisfranc injury that sidelined him for the final nine-plus games.
McFadden rushed twice for 4 yards against the Chiefs last season in a game played at the Coliseum before he suffered his injury. He missed the rest of the season.
Also of note, McFadden suffered the first of his two turf-toe injuries his rookie season against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, when he was dragged down from behind by safety Bernard Pollard at the end of a long run.
Good thing the game isn’t played on Halloween this year.

— The three previous Raiders coaches went undefeated against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Now it’s Allen’s turn to see if he can keep the streak going.
Two of Lane Kiffin’s five victories in 20 games as the Raiders head coach came against the Chiefs on the road. Tom Cable guided the Raiders to two straight victories there, as well. Hue Jackson went 1-0 at Arrowhead Stadium in his lone season as coach.

— Allen said he is impressed by the way defensive end Lamarr Houston has played. Houston was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his play against the Jaguars on Sunday.
“I’m extremely proud of him and the way that he’s played,” Allen said. “He’s a guy that has continued to get better, that’s really bought into the effort part playing defense. If he continues to do the things that he’s been doing, his talent will allow him to be a productive player.”
Allen said Houston is the kind of player that can play inside and outside, but he doesn’t want to limit him to one position. He views Houston as a player that can make plays from anywhere on the field and someone determined to make an impact every play.

— A couple of things wrong with the idea of going no-huddle all the time, in theory putting the game in the hands of Palmer and bypassing offensive coordiantor Greg Knapp.

First, Palmer says it won’t work. Second, Palmer said Knapp calls most of the plays in the no-huddle.

“If that’s all you’re going to come into the game with you completely limit yourself, from personnel groups, to formations, to protections, in the red zone, on third down, (when you’re) backed up,’’ Palmer said. “It’s not feasible. It’s a good change-up. It gets us out of a rut every once in awhile . . . it’s not something you can run all the time.’’

While Palmer has more latitude to change plays at the line of scrimmage in the no-huddle based on what he sees from the defense, he disputes the notion that the system turns him into a play-caller.

“A lot of times in no-huddle coach Knapp’s calling the plays,’’ Palmer said. “The majority of the time.’’

You People can take our 2-4 record and blame JC all you want. It’s besides the point.

R8ER MIKE

Raider Riff Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 11:56 am
Bingo.

Seymore: 1
KK: 0

***************
lol … thats the same number of houses hes sold this year too !!!

mcfadden20.

Mistic1 Tha Supavillain Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 11:59 am

Just Fire Baby Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 11:49 am

the article should have said that palmer is having a career yardage year.

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So now we don’t value passing yards as much?

What happened, I though EVERYONE was looking up at Cam Newton for his rookie year, due to his passing yards?

You didn’t seem to value passing TD’s or W-L record when making those evaulations.

Fraud
====================

Same with you, I am discussing the above article, you counter with newton. laughable.

When a rookie sets all time records for a leauge that is over 90 years old and passes all of the greatest names in history it is a big deal.

A 10 year vet doing what has already been done before by mnay qbs, and failing to back it up with wins simply isnt that impressive. Especially when you consider that palmer is only middle of the pack, and if you look at his total body of work it is down right paltry as a raider.

Sorry but palmers yardage total this season isnt enough to validate the trade.

—

Only an idiot would keep on bringing last year to prove his points.. yet f8kkin never mentions his last game in week 17. the guy played one of the best games for any QB in week 17 and still lost , so lemme see why they lost? oh must be his fault again? He didn’t fire up the D?

DMAC

R8ER MIKE Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Raider Riff Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 11:56 am
Bingo.

Seymore: 1
KK: 0

***************
lol … thats the same number of houses hes sold this year too !!!
=====

He sold a motor home, not a house.
lol

morilla

A mainstay of Knapps philosophy is to get receivers the ball short of the sticks and then it is up to them to make a play and get the first down. It rarely happens for the Raiders players.

Nothing much, just having a good laugh w/ Kell.
He seems pretty upset though.

+++++++++

Kell is cool, unlike some of the idiots. Give my dude a break.

Raider E

I am curious Mistic, lets take a trip to your perfect world in which we didn’t do the trade.

Who would our QB be now?

Just gimme a name, can you do that?

mcfadden20.

KoolKell Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 12:04 pm

You People can take our 2-4 record and blame JC all you want. It’s besides the point.

—

Palmer is not to be blamed for the 2-4 record.. the guy is playing out of his mind with that Oline .. no running support.. you guys saw last week? NO fuking running game and no freaking pass protection.. the guy kept getting knocked to the ground every freakin play and still led us to a win , not many qb’s do that , no matter how freakin bad the other team sucks

Nothing much, just having a good laugh w/ Kell.
He seems pretty upset though.
—————————-
Only bootlickers like you aren’t upset when the Raiders are losing.

mcfadden20.

Raider E Says:
October 25th, 2012 at 12:07 pm

I am curious Mistic, lets take a trip to your perfect world in which we didn’t do the trade.

Who would our QB be now?

Just gimme a name, can you do that?

—

exactly , that 17th pick would not have made the running game go , or protected the qb better, so it’s all a stupid arguement…

morilla

I watched the Monday night game with three Bear fans from Chicago. When Suh pancaked Cutler there were gasps. When he went to the locker room there were expletives and shouting about how there season is now phaucked because they have to play the big flop they got from my team. I just laughed an told them to enjoy what’s coming. Hahaha.

hwnrdr

LOL, I haven’t heard that in awhile…
Yes, I am upset about being 2-4, but I do not let sports ruin my life…
If I did, Verlander would have made me go psycho TWICE! Like that episode of Family guy where Margot Kidder goes crazy and jumps out the window…

Sir Dennis Eeatin-Hog

To those who ask why teams can effectively key on McFadden this year, but not so well in 2010 or 2011, it’s a multitude of things: 1) the scheme, implementation of scheme and attention to detail, and play-calling were clearly better under Hue than they are under Knapp; 2) the o-line is not as good now as it was the previous two seasons, period; and 3)DMAC is less effective in the ZBS as crafted by Knapp.

Now, if you really think that because the running numbers are so poor, this means that teams aren’t respecting the play-action-pass, you are wrong. Every team so far has stopped run first, second, and third, and it leaves the TE and WRs in much better shape to make the routine plays that Palmer throws their way. Granted, CP has played well in tough situations, but he has also faltered in almost every game in critical situations that cost the team points, sometimes a large point-swing (not scoring while leading to points for the other team).

I’m not laying the 2-4 start solely at the feet of CP, I’m simply pointing out that his numeric success is a direct result of defenses picking their poison and selling out to shut down DMAC against an offensive gameplan that works against his strengths anyway.

DMAC led the league in 2010 and the first 6 games of 2011 in YPC and explosive plays — runs of 20+, 30+, and 40+ yards that flip field position and lead to points. He is not the grinder that a lot of backs are, but he is more dangerous and can flip the field and scoreboard in a blink of an eye. He has the same danger factor as a receiver, and every week you see defenses selling out to make sure he is blanketed.

I can’t tell you how many times this has led to a wide open Brandon Myers, or a WR with cleaner receiving lanes. DMAC has cleared out a lot for this offense, not to mention the consistently solid blocking to keep CP clean in the pocket.

If you are a defenisve coordinator, what is your gameplan to stop the Raiders? Load up on DMAC and make an aging, never-elite CP and a host of young/unproven WRs and TEs beat you, or what?

raiderkoolaid

Drew Breeze and his team are 2-4. That doesn’t mean Breeze isn’t a good QB.

SD-Raider

I don’t understand how anybody can blame Palmer for the Raiders not going to the playoffs last year. This is a team sport people. You can score as many points as you want but if you can’t stop anybody on D, then you’re still going to lose, and that’s exactly why we lost so many times last year. Our offense averaged 22.4 pts/game.

We lost to Buffalo 38-35.
We lost to Detroit 28-27.
We lost to SD 38-26.

Those are all games where our O scored enough to win, but our D just couldn’t make a stop to save their lives. If they had made a critical stop in any of those games, we go to the playoffs.

If you really think Palmer is the problem here, you are incredibly clueless. He may not be a Rodgers or Brees, but he also doesn’t have the surrounding cast of players and coaches that they do, and he is definitely better than a lot of starting QBs in this league.

As to our pathetic offense this year, the offensive personnel is mostly the same as it was last year, so to me that points towards bad coaching. I know it takes time to adjust to a new system, so it’s possible they get this thing on track, but after 11 years of losing, I am sick of being patient.

Alex.F

4000+ yards between the 20’s doesn’t help much. 7 TD’s and 4 Int’s. 7 TD’s in 6 games? I guess he should be clearing some shelf space for an MVP award. We are 24th in points per game.

sirblitzalot

You know Cork, without a doubt you are the only professional sportswriter on this blog. You went to college and became a journalist. In the course of your education you learned how to write an analytical paper, using FACTS as a foundation. Most of the people on this blog, are uneducated trolls who develop opinions from their heart, not from their brain. No formal education in analytical thinking. Have you ever tried to have a football conversation with a Raider fan in the coliseum? There are very few intelligent (football) fans in the stadium. When the team performs really well, they start chanting “RaaaaDeerrrs!” (it could be “duhs”, I can’t really make it out). Many people posting on this blog are simply expressing their emotional opinions. They are a lot like republicans: Living in a bubble where “facts” are merely counted as “suggestions”, being tossed in the trash if they do not fit their pre-conceived emotional position. So when bloggers, like Mistic, rant on about how incompetent CP is; and insult you for demonstrating facts that do not fit into their preconceived notions, you just have to take it with a grain of salt. I think you are right about Palmer. He may not be the best QB but I see the potential. Give him a time! After all this is a “TEAM” sport. When this offense starts clicking, (and it will!) these CP haters will scurry back into their own personal black a holes and not be heard from; or they will jump on the band wagon and join the true Raider Nation!

RaiderSam

Devilr8er Says:
October 24th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
“Validating the trade that brought him to Oakland”, Cork put down the Kool-Aid.

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What these brain surgeons dont get it is…

1. Who would’ve been taken with the draft pick we gave up? – whos going to be in the SECOND ROUND of the 2013 draft? – we wouldve finished 2011 with Kyle Boller at QB?!

2. We are 24th in points per game, blah blah – who was the last QB to get the Raiders to the Super Bowl? A veteran, Rich Gannon.The last QB before then? A supposedly washed up Jim Plunkett.

3. Ya think coaching turnover and an absolute bust, JaMarcus Russell, might be too much for even Carson Palmer to overcome? – Hell, Tom Brady wouldnt be getting wins with the rest of THIS particular team and scheme.

4. the other factor is; hey, WHY NOT IMPROVE the defense, to go along with the projected 4,000 yards Palmer will throw for?

5. we went 8-8 back-to-back following a first round bust – most teams NEVER recovered from bust QBs (most notably the Cleveland Browns, and to a certain degree, the KC Chiefs. – who we still swept even in bad years.

the article should have said that palmer is having a career yardage year.

*******************************

So now we don’t value passing yards as much?

What happened, I though EVERYONE was looking up at Cam Newton for his rookie year, due to his passing yards?

You didn’t seem to value passing TD’s or W-L record when making those evaulations.

Fraud
====================

Same with you, I am discussing the above article, you counter with newton. laughable.

When a rookie sets all time records for a leauge that is over 90 years old and passes all of the greatest names in history it is a big deal.

A 10 year vet doing what has already been done before by mnay qbs, and failing to back it up with wins simply isnt that impressive. Especially when you consider that palmer is only middle of the pack, and if you look at his total body of work it is down right paltry as a raider.

Sorry but palmers yardage total this season isnt enough to validate the trade.

—

Only an idiot would keep on bringing last year to prove his points.. yet f8kkin never mentions his last game in week 17. the guy played one of the best games for any QB in week 17 and still lost , so lemme see why they lost? oh must be his fault again? He didn’t fire up the D?

—————–

Issue is the team not having the defense to get off the field on 3rd down, giving up key players who were overpriced, and having no draft picks to develop and establish depth.

They were lucky to finish how they finished 8-8, the last two years – the main thing is that they keep fighting, and stop the recent trend of not making adjustments in the 3rd quarter – they dodged a bullet again by knocking Gabbert out last week….he was on a pace to get the Jags to win handily.

505raiders

stupid atrticle at a stupid time beating a sh1tty jags team without thier qb and mjd in overtime does not validate crap

turn the game off when it got to 14-0 offense looked like sh1t and couldnt watch anymore

funny to see the excuses people make for cp “its the that line sux””its the wr” “its the lack of run game” or maybe the qb sux too

if cp on pace to throw for 4000yds hes not throwing to himself so wr must be catching and he must have time to throw the ball to hit that pace of 4000 yd

the line and wr are serviceable they are not the best but they should be enough